Shell eyes 5 terminals in Philippines by 2025

MANILA, Philippines — After starting the construction of its fourth import facility in Southern Mindanao last month, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. (PSPC) has announced plans to build another terminal as part of its commitment to operate a total of five by 2025.

“We are looking at the timeline to have five (import terminals) by 2025,” PSPC president and CEO Lorelie Quiambao-Osial said in a virtual briefing.

PSPC vice president for supply and distribution Kit Bermudez said that the fourth import facility in Davao area is scheduled to open in 2024.

“We are still looking into a possibility of opening at least one import terminal in the next few years,” Bermudez added.

On the location of the fifth import terminal, company officials declined to specify the area they are looking at, but it has yet to establish a terminal in Visayas.

“We have two import facilities in Luzon. One is in South Luzon, one is in North Luzon. We have two import facilities in Mindanao. One is operational now, the other one is in Darong which is in South Mindanao,” Bermudez added.

“To be more competitive, we need to be in one major island outside of Luzon and Mindanao,” Bermudez said.

PSPC is currently serving the fuel demand of Visayas region through the Shell Import Facility Tabangao (SHIFT) in Batangas, which has a 263-million-liter capacity.

Bermudez said that growing its network of import terminals would allow the company to have a more resilient supply chain and drive competitive pricing.

“We are building import terminals for us to be more competitive in the market that we are playing in. In the fuels [business], the bigger the vessel that you can import, the more competitive the prices will be,” Bermudez said.

PSPC’s Darong import facility has a rated capacity of 67 million liters of petroleum products and would be the third largest import facility in its network of terminals once completed.

The new facility is a 50-50 joint venture owned by Northern Star Energy Corp. and the DMCI Construction and Equipment Resources Inc. (DMC-CERI), the leading engineering-based integrated construction company which will be building the facility.

Sta. Cruz Storage Corp. (SCSC) was tapped to design, construct, and operate the facility with an exclusive-use arrangement for a term contract with an option to extend.

Apart from the SHIFT in Batangas and the Darong facility, PSPC’s other terminals include the North Mindanao Import Facility (NMIF) in Cagayan de Oro City with a 90-million-liter capacity, and the Subic Import Terminal with a 54-million-liter capacity.